Aryan Khan will spend another week in jail, and this time he will be joining other inmates.
Shah Rukh Khan's son’s bail plea has been reserved for next Wednesday.
This comes after the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) court heard both parties today in a hearing in connection with Aryan’s involvement in a cruise rave party.
The 23 year old was arrested last weekend by India’s Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on charges of consumption, sale, and purchase of narcotic drugs after a rave party aboard a luxury cruise liner.
Aryan and seven others were taken into custody by the NCB.
Khan, Munmun Dhamecha and Arbaaz Merchant were initially arrested. The trio appeared before the Esplanade Magistrate’s Court amid tight security late on Sunday and was kept in the NCB’s custody for a day.
Khan has been charged under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
In his first attempt to get bail, the Mumbai Magistrate’s Court on Friday said that Khan's bail plea was “not maintainable”, therefore denying him bail and agreeing with the NCB that since drugs were seized, a Sessions Court must hear the matter.
In his second attempt, the application was adjourned on Wednesday for today after additional solicitor general (ASG) Anil Kumar Singh, counsel for the NCB, could not finish his argument by 5.30 pm.
Now Aryan will spend more time in jail after his application was reserved.
He will also be moved with other inmates now that his isolation period in Arthur Road jail is complete.
According to the Hindustan Times, the NCB opposed Aryan’s bail plea and said that he can't be granted bail as bail has nothing to do with the quantity of drugs recovered from him.
NCB counsel Anil Singh said Aryan is a regular consumer of drugs, his WhatsApp interaction has revealed.
The fact that he was not found with drugs is immaterial as there are some provisions in the NDPS Act where the recovery of drugs is not at all crucial, he said.
“Innocent until proven guilty doesn’t apply in the cases of NDPS offences.
“In the NDPS Act, the presumption is of culpable a mental state, and it is for the accused to prove that he was not in possession during the trial,” Singh said.
Countering NCB’s arguments regarding Aryan’s WhatsApp messages, his lawyer Amit Desai said the context of the WhatsApp chats is important as casual conversations between friends on WhatsApp may appear suspicious.
He also said that Aryan Khan was overseas for a while where a lot of these things are legitimate.
The news won’t sit well with Aryan’s father who is said to be so devastated that he is hardly eating or sleeping.